{"id":2380813,"date":"2026-04-20T06:45:05","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T06:45:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2380813"},"modified":"2026-04-20T06:45:05","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T06:45:05","slug":"the-90s-movie-soundtrack-that-still-makes-millennial-hearts-flutter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/the-90s-movie-soundtrack-that-still-makes-millennial-hearts-flutter\/","title":{"rendered":"The \u201990s movie soundtrack that still makes millennial hearts flutter"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Backlit by an orange sky, Romeo appears. He smokes on a derelict outdoor stage; the only curtains here the blonde hair framing his face. The moody keyboard of Radiohead\u2019s \u201cTalk Show Host\u201d swells, a 21-year-old Leonardo DiCaprio comes into focus, and a million teenage crushes are launched.<\/p>\n

The year is 1996 and director Baz Luhrmann has reimagined William Shakespeare\u2019s \u201cRomeo and Juliet\u201d for the MTV-era. Fair Verona is now a Venice Beach-style metropolis, the rivaling families tote guns rather than swords, and Romeo pops an ecstasy pill before going to the party where he falls for Juliet, played by a 17-year-old Claire Danes.<\/p>\n

But it is the soundtrack \u2013 an eclectic mix of songs spanning Des\u2019ree\u2019s ballad \u201cKissing You,\u201d The Cardigans\u2019 sugary hit \u201cLove Fool\u201d and Garbage\u2019s sexy trip hop tune \u201c#1 Crush\u201d \u2013 that captured both the film\u2019s kaleidoscopic energy and shape-shifting \u201890s music landscape.<\/p>\n

On its 30th anniversary year \u2013 and with \u201890s nostalgia at full tilt \u2013 the compilation is also a snapshot of a unique cohesion between film and record companies. A time when albums were a key part of the movie experience that continued on peoples\u2019 CD players long after they\u2019d left the cinema.<\/p>\n

For teens during the decade, soundtrack albums were must-have merchandise, PARENTAL ADVISORY labels be damned. The same year as \u201cRomeo + Juliet,\u201d \u201cTrainspotting\u201d came out and Iggy Pop\u2019s thumping \u201cLust for Life\u201d set the pace for another CD that was both achingly cool and a massive commercial success. This was the era of \u201cDangerous Minds\u201d (1995), \u201cGood Will Hunting\u201d (1997), \u201cCruel Intentions\u201d (1999), and many more great albums that those of a certain age remember as clearly as the movies themselves.<\/p>\n

A golden era<\/h3>\n

What was driving all these compilations? CDs were relatively cheap to make, with big profit margins (remember paying $15 for a new release?), and record companies were selling a ton of them. The 1990s marked the biggest boom in record industry history.<\/a> \u201cRecord companies could afford to pay six and sometimes seven figure sums for the soundtrack rights for the film,\u201d said Marius de Vries, co-music producer on \u201cRomeo + Juliet\u201d for which he and fellow music producers Craig Armstrong and Nellee Hooper won a BAFTA.<\/p>\n

The \u201cRomeo + Juliet\u201d album itself peaked at No.2 on the Billboard 200 charts and went multi-platinum in several countries. Meanwhile, as de Vries points out, films in the \u201990s were \u201cregularly spawning enormous hit singles.\u201d Think Whitney Houston\u2019s \u201cI Will Always Love You\u201d (\u201cThe Bodyguard,\u201d 1992) or Celine Dion\u2019s \u201cMy Heart Will Go On\u201d (\u201cTitanic,\u201d 1997).<\/p>\n

With big money came longer production times of sometimes a year or more, in high-end studios. For the pivotal moment Romeo meets Juliet, Armstrong used a 60-person-strong string orchestra, something he said would be unusual today. Likewise, de Vries had a classical choir in the studio for the film\u2019s soulful renditions of Prince\u2019s \u201cWhen Doves Cry\u201d and Rozalla\u2019s \u201cEverybody\u2019s Free (To Feel Good)\u201d \u2013 both sung by baby-faced choir boy Quindon Tarver.<\/p>\n

Luhrmann wanted commercial music to form the \u201cspine\u201d of the film, recalled acclaimed Grammy-winning composers Armstrong and de Vries, with these songs bleeding into the score. Radiohead\u2019s specially-commissioned \u201cExit Music (for a Film),\u201d for instance, plays soon after the star-crossed lovers perish. Its ghostly lyrics begin: \u201cwake from your sleep.\u201d Luhrmann \u201cuses Radiohead the same way that you\u2019d use a piece of Mozart\u2026 he has no class barriers where music is concerned,\u201d said Armstrong. \u201cWhether it\u2019s contemporary, classical, garage, electronic, he treats it all with the same reverence.\u201d<\/p>\n

Representing youth culture<\/h3>\n

So how did certain songs make the cut? The curation was largely down to elusive multi-Grammy-winning producer and songwriter Hooper. Friend and musician Justin Warfield recalled Hooper\u2019s epic house parties in London, where the producer regularly played dance tracks that ended up in \u201cRomeo + Juliet.\u201d Hooper was \u201ctesting the music as a DJ would in a nightclub,\u201d said Warfield, \u201cbut trying it on an audience of friends before he put it in the final cut of the film.\u201d<\/p>\n

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